Mortarfication (A pastoral meditation.)
Context
In an early morning prayer meeting someone shared an interesting conversation with a local bricklayer. Some bricklayers like to add a catalyst to their mortar mix to make it more pliable. This makes the wall goes up more quickly and profitably, for them, but the catalyst will lead to a premature breakdown of the wall. Convenience precedes collapse. I think this is a metaphor for how much of the Church is being built today.
Introduction
“Mortarfication” is a made-up word which points to a vital truth expounded by Paul, “And above all these (attributes) put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Col 3:14). The Greek word for “bind” was regularly used for mortar; anything not immersed in this perfect love will disintegrate, whatever is filled with such love is eternal. Love separates heaven and hell. Love is the unsurpassable quality representing the being of the God Christians worship (1 Cor 13; 1 John 4:8,16). The love to which we are exhorted is the key to what we have eternally been called to be. In practice, the cultivation and practice of exceptional ministry gifts has displaced love as the dominant mode of building churches. Pastor “x” is famous for his teaching gift and his books he has written, sister “y” has a tremendous “vision” whilst brother “z” has an unsurpassable anointing. In each case ignorance of a celebrity’s personal living makes it hard to discern whether they are walking in the love which alone is eternal (Eph 5:2). This lack of inner knowledge suits our affluent culture with its aversion to blood.
Sacrificial Love
In a Fallen world divine love always answers to pain. In the End everything will hold together to the same degree that that the eternal and immortal glory of God was united with the humanity of Jesus in his “bodily” state (Col 2:9). In the perfect oneness for which Christ prayed for us (John 17:23). Paul’s great vision at the conclusion of the great Christ hymn in Colossians 1 is total reconciliation in the universe. “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” This is the final reunification of the material and the spiritual creation, “all things …in heaven and earth” in Christ (Eph 1:9-10 cf. Rev 21:10). Few of us live as if this is the absolute true about the universe because we have an aversion to blood, to voluntary suffering. The shedding of Christian blood of Christians powerfully images (Luke 11:0; Heb 12:24; Rev 6:10; 16:6; 17:6; 18:24) a willingness to count the cost of loving sinners. The Christian conscience is gripped by such things through the revelation that the dereliction of the Son of God, “God…why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34), testifies that the mortar of love between Father and Son was willingly annulled. These must be emotionally charged things! As a newish Christian said in my hearing so passionately last night, “If God asked me to give up my son I couldn’t do it, but he did it.” Greatly gifted men and women have planted massive movements in our time, but what is publicly missing is evidence of what it has cost them to do it. The scars of Christ are seen in the totality of his body-and-members (John 20:27; Gal 6:17; Heb 11:35-38). Since this is his glory in our midst, signs of the loss of the glory of sacrificial love abound in the Church.
Belonging
“Postchurch” believers abound, but what they need is authentic love, not polish or programmes. An outback stone church builder in WA remarked, “No matter how irregular the stone, if you are patient, you will always find a place for it in the church building.” If the mortar of unconditional love is present even the oddest shape person, like you and me, will find a place of belonging. This is a powerful witness to how the Lord wills to build his Body.
The Shaking
Many folk love this promise, ““Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” (Heb 12:2-27). It is true that the latest pandemic involves a global shaking, but its dimensions do not match the final tremors envisaged by Hebrews (cf. Rev 11:13). I want to suggest that the sort of quaking that alone can cause immature church structures to come apart will be a revival of a genuine alternative within the people of God. This must be a swelling of painful parental love in the Spirit (1 Cor 4:15). Paul’s writings that speak powerfully about such love.
Built to Last
1 Corinthians 13 famously teaches that even the most spectacular of spiritual gifts must pass away when “the perfect comes” (v.10). Since such “Love never ends” (v.8), this coming of “the perfect” refer to the climactic manifestation of the sacrificial love of the Lamb of God in Returning for his people. It is hardly coincidental that this same letter contains a clear warning on how to build God’s “holy temple,” the Church (1 Cor 3:16-17). The work of those who build on the foundation of Christ with rubbish material will be “burned up” by the Lord’s holy fire on that “Day” (1 Cor 3:12-15). Tragically, much of what is presently being constructed in our churches lacks the integrity to be incorporated into the eternal building of the Bride of Christ. Paul puts this brilliantly at the conclusion of his most spiritually elevated letter, “Peace be to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.” (Eph 6:23-24). Love incorruptible, undying love, is literally “the love” which can never break down. This is the love which the crucified Lord passes on to us through our communion with him in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6). By grace in the Spirit, we can actually love like God loves.
Conclusion
Despite all appearances sooner rather than later we are likely to see a revival of family pastoring. Men and women so familiar with the sheep under their care that they will be intimately familiar with their pains, so as to love them as Jesus does. Such an image is extraordinarily lovely (Ps 23; John 10). Remember that the time is coming when all the human constructions of this world will pass away in the final fire of God (2 Pet 3:7). Hard to imagine, but the Spirit warns the churches us that many of its constructs are fragile, weak and on the pint of perishing; no matter how outwardly strong they appear (Rev 2:5; 3:2). What then should we do in the face of such a serious divine warning? Pray for an unprecedented outpouring of sacrificial unconditional love, such love “never fails” (1 Cor 13:13).